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A campaign for an anti-discrimination amendment for Ohio is in the works

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — An effort is underway to introduce a proposed anti-discrimination constitutional amendment before voters that seeks to provide equal protection for Ohioans regardless of gender, age, or sexual orientation.

Stonewall Columbus Pride in 2024.
Stonewall Columbus Pride in 2024. [Sarah Donaldson | Statehouse News Bureau]
A group called Ohio Equal Rights is working to put an anti-discrimination amendment before voters to protect Ohioans based on sexual orientation, gender, age, military status, and more when it comes to housing, employment, and public accommodations. That’s similar to a bill in the Ohio Legislature called the Ohio Fairness Act, which has been introduced seven times in the legislature and hasn’t yet passed.

Liz Schmidt with Ohio Equal Rights said this would also repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) now in the state constitution.

“The passage of this under this sort of broad non-discrimination language would include revoking the current gay marriage ban that is still in Ohio’s constitution and would go back into effect if we were to leave federal protections for gay marriage,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the group has been looking at anti-discrimination policies in other states when developing Ohio’s proposal. But she said Ohio’s will be unique.

“We’ve also been doing research locally to make sure the language that we are using is what is really going to protect Ohioans, that makes sense in an Ohio context,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the group plans to ramp up a campaign for the effort sometime in 2025.

“We are looking for partners who want to sign on, either to our coalition or to provide endorsements. So we are still in the phase of coalition building during the next couple of months but I think we are going to see this campaign move quickly in 2025,” Schmidt said.